Another day...another cup o' Joe

Do you remember when you were little? You know those Saturday mornings when you would wake up so sleepy, walk  into the kitchen and there you would find Dad sitting at the kitchen table with his cup of coffee and the newspaper. I can remember wanting to be just like him... there were some slight problems though, 1. That enormous paper that is way too big to be held correctly when one is so little and 2. Hating the taste of coffee. Luckily all that has changed now, I love the taste of coffee (Hence the name of the blog), it is just the newspaper that has changed a lot. Sure you can still buy the paper one for the sake of nostalgia, the feel of the ink as it leaves black marks on your fingertips, and of course you can't forget those coupon inserts. Now of course we have the news on our tablets, computers, cell phones- in just a second we can be informed of political, national, or world news. The only problem is when that news isn't as truthful as we think it is- just take a second to look through your Facebook or Twitter feed. Read a few stories that your "friends" have posted and see if you really think any of them have real or true substance to it. Just a few Google searches later and you will find that most of the stories have been seriously taken out of context. 

Context- the power of words. This was what I was thinking about this morning with my cup o' Joe. You see words aren't so important as the sentences we make with them, add some emotion and we have a final product. Alas, emotion has a way of twisting those words and producing a product that was far different from the original. The oral word is not very binding and can be easily manipulated- isn't that why we always say, "You need to get it in writing?". You see oral words can be manipulated but the written word is solid. 

So let's analyze a word today: Gossip. What is gossip, some call them lies and some call them "half-truths". I would like to analyze it as such: a rapid speech with no substance, the fire that shoots out and causes destruction. Now you are probably in shock... that can't possibly be a good analysis for gossip. The problem is that we have created nice words like "gossip" or "chisme" in Spanish- but we need to describe it as it is, the murder of character. We have murdered others by destroying their character. There is no hesitation in our speech, we murder with no caution or concern. 

Sometimes it happens over the most trivial of things, but someone's character has been harmed- over a lie. I do not use "misunderstanding" because there is usually no attempt to try to understand or to ask for clarification- only, an attempt to murder. 

This leads me to two questions, why do we gossip? and how should the Christian respond to gossip? 
For the first question- the answer is simple, pride. C. S. Lewis described it, "as the vice that leads to all other vices." Jms. 3:16 tells us where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. He continues in 4:1-12 that what causes fights and quarrels is that you desire and don't have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. We have made ourselves Judge (4:11-12) but we have forgotten "there is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy..."
So then what must be the Christians response- how do you respond to the fire? Do you spend your whole life trying to put out the flame? In other words telling everyone you know the truth, trying to make other's believe you rather than the lie? Or do you start your own fire- perhaps making a bigger blaze to overcome the one that was set about you? or take from our other analogy- is it okay to murder the one who has attempted to murder you?
In Mt. 4:44-45, Jesus tells us "...Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." Then the apostle Paul writes further in Rom. 12:17-21, "Repay no one evil for evil (that means no setting of your own fire or murdering the one who has tried to murder you). Beloved never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." (This means no to spending our whole life trying to put out the fire- why? because if I leave it for the wrath of God is that not far better?) Can I also clarify and say that sometimes that payment may not always look as we want it to because punishment will be repaid in two different ways, either at the cross of Christ where God's wrath poured out on His Holy and Righteous Son or at the final judgment when the unrepentant sinner must bow and declare that Jesus Christ is God to the glory of God the Father. If it is the first way- than who are we to withhold forgiveness for the one that God himself has forgiven. 
This idea of forgiving our enemies is so foreign to us, but C. S. Lewis writes about this idea of Christian forgiveness in "Mere Christianity" that I hope you will think on today while you drink that cup o' Joe: (from pg. 120)
"...Something inside us, the feeling of resentment, the feeling that wants to get one's own back, must be simply killed. I do not mean that anyone can decide this moment that he will never feel it any more. That is not how things happen. I mean that every time it bobs its head up, day after day, year after year, all our lives long, we must hit it on the head. It is hard work, but the attempt is not impossible...we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves- to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not. I admit that this means loving people who have nothing lovable about them. But then, has oneself anything lovable about it? You love it simply because it is yourself. God intends us to love all selves in the same way and for the same reason: but He has given us the sum ready worked out in our own case to show us how it works. We have then to go on and apply the rule to all the other selves. Perhaps it makes it easier if we remember that that is how He loves us..."